Wrestling with Isolation

Are you the kind of guy who retreats to the cave of isolation like a bear when you get wounded?

So many of us do exactly that and then choose to self-medicate to numb our pain with all manner of vices which, in the end, only compound our problems and our wounds.

Or we simply stuff them so far down that we never properly process them.

One of my mentors, Robert Lewis, says that a real man looks back on his past.  It’s the first step to becoming an authentic man. But many of us have never done this. The deep things of our past are often buried away. But the reality is that unaddressed wounds become unfinished business. We hedge, dodge, and compensate until our whole way of living is shaped by the wounds we’ve ignored.

Sure, we all like recounting our triumphs and thrills.  But few of us take the time to analyze our past in a way that helps us truly understand ourselves. Do you really know what past experiences and realities make you the person you are today? Do you know what drives you? What shapes your image of manhood and self?  Until a man unpacks his past and deals with the themes and pain that reside there, he can never be an authentic man.  As the saying goes, the unexamined life is not worth living.

Well, there is nothing like 83 days ALONE in the frigid, predator-filled environment of the Mackenzie River Delta near Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada, north of the Arctic Circle to do a little self-examination.  And that is exactly what my guest today, Timber Cleghorn,  did as the runner up to the winner on season 11 of the ALONE show on the History Channel.  The season tested the participants’ physical, mental, and emotional resilience against extreme temperatures, dangerous wildlife like wolves and bears, and intense isolation.

Timber’s website is: www.timbercleghorn.com